At the start of day two at the Wankhede Stadium, the fourth Test hung in the balance.

England had finished overnight at 288/5, and were hopeful of pushing for a greater total. Ravichandran Ashwin had lamented the absence of an enforcer in their bowling attack (read, Mohammed Shami) and that India could have done with one more wicket.

The morning session, as such, was decisive in determining the direction of this game. For, this Mumbai pitch is in stark contrast to the wickets rolled out in the first three Tests. From Rajkot to Visakhapatnam to Mohali, there was only slow turn, but more variable bounce as the matches progressed.

This wicket is not a raging turner, still. Yet, in keeping with Wankhede tradition, it has more bounce and the ball just spits off the surface. It was seen in the ample turn Indian spinners got on day one evening, when Ashwin triggered a middle-order collapse. It put onus on the last recognised pair of Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes to come up with something special and deny the hosts.

Buttler shows the benefit of an uncluttered mind

Stokes did not last long, but Buttler took responsibility and with it, duly the centre-stage for the English innings. His innings reflected clear thinking – looking to stay long while the lower middle order batted along with him. With Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid at the other end, he looked to bat for time – stretch the innings as long as possible.

He found an ideal foil in Jake Ball, and for a second day running, India dropped the ball – pun unintended – in the latter half of the morning session. That Buttler and Ball put on 50 off just 69 balls before lunch also reflected on how the keeper-batsman changed gears now that he himself was running out of partners.

Buttler’s knock was a picture of two halves, and the crucial differentiation in his play from his middle-order colleagues was seen in his approach to playing spin. “It was about settling down at the crease. I have played IPL here (for Mumbai Indians), so I was able to ignore the noise and chaos and concentrate on batting. It is just about ignoring the turn and not getting alarmed by it,” he said in the post-play press conference.

Parthiv Patel’s cheeky press conference

In this light, Parthiv Patel’s remarks (after stumps) can be considered quite disparaging. “Buttler was lucky,” said the Indian keeper. “He played and missed so much yesterday, and today there was no pressure on him. I would like to see him bat here in the second innings.”

At this juncture, you would want to ask Patel just how many overseas batsmen he has seen stringing together middle and lower orders together in these last two home seasons? How many have been able to “ignore the turn” as Buttler put it so simply?

Remember South Africa in 2015, and how their entire batting line-up (with the exception of AB de Villiers) lost a mental battle against Indian spinners. Or, even New Zealand before this series – it was a matter of rolling down their top-order and the lower order would not show any semblance of a fight. They did not even try in Indore.

For England’s sake, Buttler did. And when the innings folded up after lunch, it was due credit to him that the visitors had more than a fighting score. Importantly enough, the match still hung in balance.

India faced 500-plus in Rajkot but that was a truly different pitch. Here, the 400-run total made for a bigger challenge, and the hosts’ response was intriguing. Particularly in light of Alastair Cook’s move to bowl both Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid from the eighth over onwards.

Simply put, the Indian openers went on the offensive. Lokesh Rahul danced away against them, and for a short time, he looked very confident. Vijay at the other end tried hard to keep pace with his young partner. It worked as the score raced.

England’s spinners lacked consistency

Then, Ali bowled Rahul – a peach of a delivery, similar to many Ashwin had bowled against Stokes on day one, almost at a similar time. There were two differentiating factors though. Ashwin bowled to Stokes and the ball moved away from his off-stump, while Ali bowled into Rahul, and the batsman erred in driving against the turn, bowled through the gate.

The other – bigger – difference was in consistency. Ashwin had many such deliveries against both Stokes and Buttler. Jayant Yadav had chipped in too. But Ali did not bowl with similar steadiness, despite discovering the sweet spot on the pitch from where the ball just shot off.

At least, it made Patel’s other remarks valid. “Our bowling is far better. Our bowlers get definitely more revolutions on the ball than what their spinners are doing. And obviously, we vary our pace very well. We have deceived a lot of players in the air than just waiting for the help of the wicket. I think there’s definitely a lot of difference in the quality. We don’t have to go over the top and try and play a sweep or a reverse sweep because we know that a bad ball is coming soon,” he said.

Sure, Patel said a lot for an in-match press conference. But it is a fact that Ali and Rashid do not hold a candle to Ashwin-Jadeja in these conditions. Given the home advantage, it is an obvious assumption. However, it is not a stand-alone factor, for Ali’s record against India in his home conditions is quite proven.

Instead, it came down to tactics – batting and bowling, both. Cook had too many options at his disposal, and just when the spinners started leaking runs, he decided to use other bowlers available. It was a big mistake. There is no written rule for a captain to use all bowlers. If you keep a gun for safety purposes, does it mean you can shoot at will because that option is available?

With Rahul-Vijay, and then later Vijay-Cheteshwar Pujara, the clear attempt was to hit the spinners out of the attack. They kept plugging regular boundaries in order to disturb their rhythm, and bowling Ali-Rashid for long could have bore fruition.

Alternately, Rahul only found partial success. But Vijay-Pujara were better at it because they can balance control with attacking intent. This equilibrium will be pivotal to India’s approach when they look to progress further from 146/1.

At stumps on day two then, with England still ahead by 254 runs, the match hung in the balance.